President Donald Trump signed congressional resolutions on Thursday that block California’s efforts to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035, a policy that 12 states, including New Jersey, also adopted.
The Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions that Trump signed overturn a waiver allowing the phased-in ban on gas car sales that had been granted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the prior Biden administration.
Trump, who called the California Advanced Clean Car II (ACCII) rules “crazy” and a “disaster for our country,” also signed measures to overturn the state’s policies curbing tailpipe emissions in certain vehicles and smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks.
California’s attorney general quickly filed a lawsuit, which was joined by New Jersey and other states, challenging the legality of all three congressional resolutions.
"The federal government is breaking basic procedural rules in a misguided effort to pollute our air and hurt the public health of our residents,” said NJ Attorney General Matt Platkin. “Revoking state vehicle emissions standards is illegal, and it is yet another way that the Trump administration is violating the law to target states it disfavors."
For New Jersey, one of 12 states that adopted California’s ACCII rule, the repeal of the EPA waiver means the Garden State cannot completely ban new gas-powered car sales in 2035 as planned. That rule was supposed to begin phasing in with the 2027 model year.
Instead, all states will presumably need to conform to the federal EPA standards – which are less stringent but also set emissions targets.
NJBIA Deputy Chief Government Affairs Officer Ray Cantor said the congressional resolutions were a “pragmatic, common sense response” to a mandate that was unattainable and unaffordable.
“The California mandate, which New Jersey had chosen to follow, would remove basic freedoms of choice, exacerbate income inequality in our state and add greatly to New Jersey’s lack of affordability,” Cantor said.
The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute issued a joint statement of support after the resolutions were signed.
“The President and Congress just delivered a major win for the American people by overturning California’s gas car ban and the state’s attempt to tell consumers what they can and can’t drive,” the statement said. “Today’s historic signing is critical for protecting U.S. families, manufacturing workers and our national energy security.”
The lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the congressional resolutions signed by the president asks a federal court to declare them unconstitutional and void. Specifically, the complaint alleges the attempt to invalidate California’s waivers violated constitutional principles of federalism and separation of powers, the Take Care Clause, and multiple federal statutes.
Joining California in the complaint were the attorneys general of Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the State of Washington.
This story was updated at 4:30 p.m. Thursday after NJ and other states joined California's lawsuit.
